


His Happy Ending

by orphan_account



Category: Cinderella 2015
Genre: Gen, Kits' childhood, Kits' mother, Miscarriage, explaining to a child..., trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 19:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5510354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kit can't understand why his mother isn't putting him to bed and his father struggles to explain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Happy Ending

“Papa, could you please tell me a story?”His request was simple and small, similar to his voice as he did little more than whisper across the room. In the doorway, the king paused, taken off guard by the small plea. As if he saw his fathers bemused face in the silhouette of the doorway, Kit elaborated slightly. 

"Mama, Mother,” The little prince corrected himself before his father could, but Fredrick was in no mood to reprimand the poor child, not now, “she always tells me a story before bed, I just thought…”

“I’m not very learned in stories that would interest you, I’m afraid.” Fredrick apologised, but he found himself returning to his sons side, knowing that company would be best for him, at least. He briefly wondered what he must be feeling like, confused and worried, most likely, too uninformed to be scared, but still aware of his mothers absence and considerably concerned by it.

"I can talk with you, if you would like.” He offered, returning to his place at the foot of Kit’s bed, unsure of what he might do for him. “Is there anything you would like to know?” That was the worst thing he could have said, and he knew it before the dark expression came to his sons face. Usually the merry child had many, persistent and often unexplainable questions, but this time there was only one thing on his mind. 

“What has happened to Mother?” The query sliced deep into Fredrick’s chest, injured him in a way Kit had never succeeded in doing before. How could he answer truthfully? 

“Perhaps we ought to begin the story.” He suggested at last, sighing a little as he turned to face his expectant son. A quirk of his eyebrow proceeded to stifle any objections of “Papa!”. 

“Once there was a little boy who lived far, far away, in a fantastical kingdom where there was much joy and cheer and laughter.” Kit secretly thought this was going to be a very dull story, for surely stories had to have a problem that needed to be fixed? Otherwise there wasn’t much else to pay attention to. 

“Were there any dragons in the kingdom?” Kit asked, big blue eyes wide and wondering as he began to guess what on earth made that kingdom so special. 

“No, but there were tempestuous housekeepers.” Kit didn’t know what ‘tempestuous’ meant, but the word housekeeper was decidedly associated with Prudence, and the little prince was undeniably petrified of Prudence.

“Goblins?”

“No, but the little boy was very naughty.”

“Enchanted forest?” He was just being optimistic now, confused as to how on earth a tale that had no dragons, goblins or, presumably, an enchanted forest might qualify as an appropriate bedtime story. 

"There was a very wonderful set of gardens that his mother liked very much.” Kit sighed, thinking the story quite boring already. It really sounded too close to his life, and thinking of his own life caused him to think of his mother, and the thousands of imaginative possibilities a six year old might come up with when left uninformed would swallow him whole. 

“And this little boy loved his… grandfather, yes, grandfather, very, very dearly.” The little prince had not known his own grandfather well enough to love him, exactly, but the few times he had spared time for him Kit remembered fondly, even if they had been somewhat marred by his death two years ago and the gloom that had surrounded it. “Then, one day his grandfather, he, was planning on getting a kitten for himself and his wife and the little boy,” Fredrick was making it up as he went, grandfather become interchangeable with mother and kitten with baby. 

“Now, the ch - the kitten was meant to come a long, long time in the future, so long ahead that his grandfather had failed to tell the boy that there was going to be a, um, kitten. But, the kitten was too early and it wasn’t fully grown.”

“So they couldn’t keep it?” Kit risked, thinking he had followed along. 

“No, no they couldn’t.” Kit failed to understand why his father looked so troubled, it was just a story, after all, and while it was sad that they couldn’t have a kitten he was sure that it had found a new owner soon enough, because all stories have a happy ending. 

“Papa, don’t worry.” The sleepy prince urged, pushing aside his covers to crawl into his fathers lap. He felt is father’s chest heave when he laid his head on it, and that frightened him a little. Nothing made sense. “You don’t have to be so sad, all stories have happy endings.” 

“No, my son.” He felt more than heard the sorrow in his voice. “Some tales can never be happy, no matter how hard the writers try many stories end in tragedy.” Such cynical, depressing words for an impressionable child to hear, but Fredrick knew how utterly content his son could be at times. 

“Well, then it simply is not the end of the story.” 

Those words Kit’s father took comfort in on his deathbed, in the knowledge that his son had not only returned to who he was before his mothers demise, but also grown into a new man, and that he would never stop chasing his happy ending, even if the king had long ago stopped hoping for his.   
Father and son sat as they were for a long time, the princeling curled into his fathers chest at the foot of his little bed, and when it was finally time for them to part for the night, neither of them felt so afraid.


End file.
